In conventional electronic mail (email) systems, a user (the xe2x80x9csenderxe2x80x9d) sends a message to one or more specified recipients. The sender composes the message using an email client and specifies the identities of the intended recipients. The email client sends the email message and associated information, such as the identities of the intended recipients, to an email server. The email server sends the email message to the recipients over a network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, or an internet (such as the public Internet). In such a system, the message is transmitted only to those recipients specified by the sender and is stored only in the personal outbox of the sender and personal inboxes of the recipients. As a result, the message can be accessed only by the sender and the recipients specified by the sender.
Conventional email systems are often used within an enterprise to exchange both personal and enterprise-related email messages. For example, an employee in an enterprise may use the enterprise""s email system to send a personal message to another employee regarding a social event that is unrelated to business of the enterprise or to provide personal views and opinions on business issues. Users also, however, use the enterprise email system to exchange email regarding official enterprise business, such as policies and procedures of the enterprise and minutes of meetings.
Conventional email systems cannot distinguish between personal e-mail messages and email messages that represent official enterprise correspondence. As a result, conventional email systems typically transmit, process, and store email messages representing both personal correspondence and official enterprise correspondence in the same manner. For example, if it is the policy of an enterprise to archive all email messages for one year, then email messages representing both personal correspondence and official enterprise correspondence are archived for one year. Furthermore, enterprises wishing to retain property rights to official enterprise correspondence often choose to enact policies that regard all email messagesxe2x80x94both personal and officialxe2x80x94transmitted using the enterprise""s email system as the property of the enterprise, because such systems lack any reliable way to automatically distinguish between personal correspondence official enterprise correspondence.
Lack of an ability to automatically distinguish between personal messages and official enterprise correspondence leads to various problems. First, some employees consider company review of email messages to be an invasion of privacy. Because the enterprise is unable to separate personal messages from official enterprise correspondence automatically (i.e., without reviewing the contents of the messages), privacy concerns therefore prevent the enterprise from productively analyzing and processing email containing official enterprise correspondence. Some enterprises treat all email messages transmitted within the enterprise email system as official enterprise correspondence. Such a policy, however, might result in the enterprise being held legally responsible for the contents of such email messages, even if such messages were intended by their senders and recipients to constitute purely personal communications. The enterprise might thus be exposed to legal liability for claims, such as sexual harassment or fraud, arising out of such purely personal messages. Some enterprises archive both personal correspondence and official enterprise correspondence together for an extended period of time. Personal correspondence that is archived may be uncovered at a later date, such as during the discovery phase of litigation, and used against the enterprise as if the correspondence were official enterprise correspondence.
A method and system are provided for use by an enterprise in which personal messages are processed and/or stored differently than messages that are intended to constitute official enterprise correspondence (referred to as xe2x80x9centerprise messagesxe2x80x9d). For example, personal messages may be made available only to specified recipients (e.g., by storing the personal messages in the inboxes of the specified recipients), while enterprise messages may be stored in a searchable database accessible to members of the enterprise. The sender of a message may indicate whether the message is a personal message or an enterprise message and thereby affect how the message is processed.
In one aspect, a method is provided that sends an electronic communication including a message, a recipient identifier identifying at least one recipient of the message, and a status indicator indicating whether the message is a personal message or an enterprise message is received. The message is sent to the at least one recipient if the access identifier indicates that the message is a personal message. If the access identifier indicates that the message is an enterprise message, the message is sent to a searchable database and also may be sent to the at least one recipient. Other aspects of the invention include a system and computer-readable medium that perform the same functions as those described above.
Other aspects of the invention include the various combinations of one or more of the foregoing aspects of the invention, as well as the combinations of one or more of the various embodiments thereof as found in the following detailed description or as may be derived therefrom. The foregoing aspects of the invention also have corresponding computer-implemented processes which are also aspects of the present invention. Other embodiments of the present invention may be derived by those of ordinary skill in the art both from the following detailed description of a particular embodiment of the invention and from the description and particular embodiment of a system in accordance with the invention.